Chiral vortical effect for vector fields

Abstract

We consider photonic vortical effect, i.e. the difference of the flows of left- and right-handed photons along the vector of angular velocity in rotating photonic medium. Two alternative frameworks to evaluate the effect are considered, both of which have already been tried in the literature. First, the standard thermal fied theory and, alternatively, Hawking-radiation-type derivation. In our earlier attempt to compare the two approaches, we found a crucial factor of two difference. Here we revisit the problem, paying more attention to details of infrared regularizations. We find out that introduction of an infinitesimal mass of the vector field brings the two ways of evaluating the chiral vortical effect into agreement with each other. Some implications, both on the theoretical and phenomenological sides, are mentioned.